Jutland: An Analysis of the Fighting
by John Campbell
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Jutland has produced more inconclusive controversy from historians and naval officers than any other modern sea fight, and yet no previous account has made more than passing reference to the extensive records of the battle, such as the action and damage reports and the ammunition expenditure returns, or described adequately the various destroyer actions. Here, for the first time, John Campbell has pieced together and analyzed the wealth of official technical material available from both show more navies, throwing new light on a host of questions, including how many individual ships stood up to punishment and the quality of each ship's gunnery. As a result of his painstaking study, posterity may have to modify its judgment, for better or worse, of certain naval officers and ship designers.Highly successful on its first publication in the 1980s, Jutland: An Analysis of the Fighting has become the classic authoritative work on the subject, changing the study of Jutland profoundly and establishing the benchmark for all subsequent naval studies of the First World War. Renowned naval historian Antony Preston provides a preface to this new edition of Campbell's influential book. (5 3/4 X 9, 448 pages, diagrams, charts) show lessTags
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Campbell has been accused of having a very dry, though entirely factual, presentation that some find slow going and not entertaining, and this book is not short. For myself I find the book to be easy to read and understand, and if people are willing to take time over the book it will repay them many times over.
That said, this book is the only really serious study of the damage suffered by the ships at Jutland available to people, and it is far superior to any work in its analysis of the damage, making most look superficial. Each stage of the action is covered in great detail, showing the course of the battle and a narrative of the action. Then the damage suffered in that phase is discussed for each ship in turn, allowing the reader to show more understand how each hit affected the ship and the implications of it long term during the battle.
Obviously this is not just an account of the action, and many seem to regard that as a fault, ignoring Campbell’s intention was to provide an analysis of exactly what happened to the ships and why by examining the damage suffered. The damage is examined in great detail, following the path a shell took after striking the ship, the damage from its explosion. It does not the shell fragments that ended up in very close proximity to magazines or powder rooms, but miraculously did no more than come to a halt!
The book also deals with the Battle of Dogger Bank and shows how performance there led both sides to make changes to their systems, with fatal results on the British side, but with better results for the Germans. Anyone reading this book will come away with a far greater knowledge of Jutland, and to any historian it is utterly indispensible. show less
That said, this book is the only really serious study of the damage suffered by the ships at Jutland available to people, and it is far superior to any work in its analysis of the damage, making most look superficial. Each stage of the action is covered in great detail, showing the course of the battle and a narrative of the action. Then the damage suffered in that phase is discussed for each ship in turn, allowing the reader to show more understand how each hit affected the ship and the implications of it long term during the battle.
Obviously this is not just an account of the action, and many seem to regard that as a fault, ignoring Campbell’s intention was to provide an analysis of exactly what happened to the ships and why by examining the damage suffered. The damage is examined in great detail, following the path a shell took after striking the ship, the damage from its explosion. It does not the shell fragments that ended up in very close proximity to magazines or powder rooms, but miraculously did no more than come to a halt!
The book also deals with the Battle of Dogger Bank and shows how performance there led both sides to make changes to their systems, with fatal results on the British side, but with better results for the Germans. Anyone reading this book will come away with a far greater knowledge of Jutland, and to any historian it is utterly indispensible. show less
Very good and very detailed, minute by minute.
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6 Works 259 Members
John Campbell, who passed away in 1998, was a well-known authority on naval weaponry. He wrote on this topic in a number of journals, including a very detailed series on British guns in the Warship annual. He was the author of two monographs on Queen Elizabeth class battleships and World War I battlecruisers and also made major contributions to show more the Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships series. He also wrote a detailed account of combat at the Battle of Jutland in his book Jutland: An Analysis of the Fighting. Naval Weapons of World War Two represents the culmination of a lifetime's research and may be considered his magnum opus. show less
Common Knowledge
- People/Characters
- David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty; Hugh Evan-Thomas; Franz von Hipper; John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe; Reinhard Scheer
- Important places
- North Sea
- Important events
- World War I (1914 | 1918); Battle of Jutland (1916-05-31 | 1916-06-01)
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Statistics
- Members
- 96
- Popularity
- 334,380
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.91)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 4
